Introduction:

Last week we talked about how In-N-Out’s competitive advantage is efficiency, and how one of my client’s competitive advantage is their creativity. Now I want to introduce you to another burger chain that was started in Austin, TX, called Mighty Fine. Despite what you might be thinking, Mighty Fine’s competitive advantage is not their burger. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic burger and I love it. Actually, it’s beyond great and at a pretty fair price (it’s a little pricey for a quick service restaurant).

The Mighty Fine Advantage:

Mighty Fine grinds their own meat with a big mixer grinder, they shape their patties two to four times a day, and their burger meat is bright red because that meat was ground maybe two hours before it gets cooked. They cut their own french fries, and I have to say that they’re pretty awesome french fries. They also bread their own onion rings and bake their own buns. And all of this is done in their restaurants.

So their competitive advantage is good luck, as in good luck competing with that. But seriously, their competitive advantage isn’t the $10,000 they spent on the mixer grinder or the $10,000 machine that breads their onion rings. Their competitive advantage is that they know how to hire and train staff better than you. You can try this and spend $1.5M to $2M and open up a restaurant right next door to them and they’ll laugh in your face – I don’t say this because I don’t want you to succeed, but because you’re probably not going to be able to find and train staff the way Mighty Fine does. Sooner or later you’re going to struggle, be at your restaurant day in and day out, and you’re going to get tired and just go back to your old ways.

Their competitive advantage helps them do things that other restaurants can’t because they are so good at finding, recruiting, hiring, training and developing talent. This leads them to be able to do all the things that we wish we could in our restaurants, but instead you are struggling to find staff who even show up on time to flip a frozen burger and cook frozen fries.

Final Thoughts:

This isn’t about how we train staff, it’s about you finding your competitive advantage. I’ve now given you three examples in the industry:

1. Efficiency: In-N-Out (limited menu to focus on what they do best)
2. Creativity: My client (always being ahead of everybody else.)
3. Staff Development: Might Fine (training and recruiting.)

Think about your competitive advantage. What can you do with that competitive advantage that no one else can do so you can skyrocket in this industry. Everyone will look at you and want to copy you, but they won’t be able to because you are so good at this one thing. Speaking of the one thing, checkout this book report on did a book called, the one thing.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s video I look forward to bringing you another one just like it next week.